It’s saturday morning and as much as I would love to sleep in, I’m awoken by a light- but still too heavy for comfort- weight being thrown on top of me. I let out a low and sleepy groan, muffled by the pillow underneath me, and began peaking one of my droopy eyes open.

“Nari…” I say trying to sound annoyed, although we both know I’m anything but. I’ve never been a morning person, but since Seungkwan and I had adopted a few years back I had to get used to waking up at ungodly hours.

I hear a few giggles before the warm duvet is pulled up and quickly yanked back down. I then feel cold and tiny arms wrap around my neck and small toes wiggle between my knees for warmth. Smiling softly to myself, I began running my hand through my daughter's tangly, morning hair. “Daddy said he’s going to make breakfast, but he told me not to tell you that.” She says in a squeaky whisper, her eyes shining in the process. I laugh at the obliviousness of the situation and bring my hand up to catch one of her own and begin swing them mindlessly.

“Oh, is he? Hm, do you know what he’s making?” I can clearly smell bacon and assume that Seungkwan will probably make eggs and some rice porridge to go with it, but I play along anyways. It's always fun to tease the little drama queen.

“I’m not telling you! You’ll have to get up and see for yourself!” She says moving from her previous position and sitting on her calves; blanket falling off of her completely and resting just below my waist in the process.

Man for a seven year-old, she sure is sassy… she must get it from Seungkwan. I think to myself.

“Now that’s just cruel , you know I’m old and can’t move well.” I complain loudly and throw an arm over my eyes, shielding them from the streaming light coming from the sheer curtains on the other side of the spacious room.

“Nh-uh, you’re like 30! That’s not old. Maybe if you were a hundred then you would be old!” She tugs my unmoving arm and I groan once more, because that's not my age, but again, she’s only seven, I’ll cut her some slack.

“I’m only 27.” I mumble out.

“What’s that mean, daddy?”

“That’s how old I a-”

“No” Nari cuts me off. “The words on your arm.” She says while poking my right inner forearm, where the word ‘ Soulmate’ is scrawled out in black cursive letters; a distinct contrast to my milky white skin. I give her a broad smile at the question.

“It says soulmate, I had gotten a matching tattoo with your other dad, when he and I were younger.” My smile softens when I remember the day we both had went to the tattoo parlor to get them done.

She tilts her head and scrunches her eyebrows into a thinking scowl. “What’s wrong baby?” I ask out of curiosity.

Lifting her head, “What’s a soulmate?” she questions innocently.

“It’s a…” I try and think of more simple way to describe the delicate word.

“Well it’s like a best friend, but more.”

●●

Middle School: 7th Grade

I’m currently trying to catch up on some much needed sleep before class starts for today. I came to school pretty early, so why not?

“Hey tangerine boy, what’s with your cheeks?!” I stir, from my little nap, to hear someone ask/yell behind me. “And that accent! Where did you even learn that?” Another boy asks.

Turning my head sluggishly towards the harsh sounding words, I notice a pudgy looking boy holding a bag of, what looks like, oranges, and is huddled in the doorway by a few other boys. I make a questioning look, because why would they pick on him? What did he do wrong? I mean, I’ve never even seen this guy before.

Something inside me begins to bubble up into a mixture of anger, confusion, and confidence and I’m suddenly intrigued to save the boy in whatever trouble he’s in at the moment.

Standing, I make my way towards the bullies. “Yah! Back up!” I yell, my voice cracking in the process. “Leave the new kid alone! He didn’t even do anything.” I say shaking my head at the taller boys, who are beginning to crowd around me as well.

“Oh, it's the mixed kid.” One of them says, sounding kind of bored. “Hey newbie, this kid here-” He says while pointing towards me. “-thinks he’s some hot  because of his ‘unique’ looks, but really he’s just like you. A nobody.” The group surrounding us snickers and the new kid looks up towards me in an unreadable expression. Confidence now fading, I quickly duck my head; embarrassed of the title. “See, halfer here can’t even look you in the face, he’s so ashamed!”

“ I think …” The pudgy boy infront of me, boldly starts, but I continue to keep my head lowered. “I think he’s actually quite beautiful.” He says in a thick Jeju accent. Well, at least I think it’s Jeju?

My head shoots up rapidly and my eyes widen almost comically, at the boy's choice of words.

Beautiful?

“Oh. Well then you two can enjoy being losers together.” One says slowly while walking away, becoming bored of the whole exchange.

“Congratulations, Hansol, on you first friend !” Another says sarcastically, with slight venom in his tone, while slapping me on the back a couple times and begins to walk away. The rest of the boys previously surrounding us, also follows his actions, leaving the two of us to stand in the classroom’s doorway.

I stand frozen in my previous position and continue to stare at the other boy, who is watching the bullies walk to the other side of the classroom. He quickly switches his gaze back towards me and lets out a relieved sigh. “Man, I thought they would never leave!” He says lowly, while rolling his eyes. “I’m Boo Seungkwan.” he says, holding out his unoccupied hand. I quickly take it and reply.

“Choi Hansol.” I look towards his other hand, before letting go of the one I’m currently shaking and ask my first question. “So, did you move here from Jeju?” The question comes out more awkward then I thought it would and I quickly begin speaking. “It’s just that, uh, your accent sounds like the one I’ve heard in a drama that I’ve watched.” I stumble my words out, still not comfortable with the whole, making friends, thing.

“Yep born and raised!.. Kind of.” He ignores my awkwardness and continues. “Hints to the bag of tangerines.” He says proudly while raising the plastic bag full of  the orange fruit. “I was going to give the whole class one each, but I guess those guys from before don’t really like fruit, so they definitely won’t be getting one.” He says in an exaggerated manner and I burst out laughing at his natural sassiness.

“So” Sungkwan says after my out burst fades into light giggles. “They said something about me being your first friend?”

I turn my eyes away while nodding my head. “I, uh, I don’t really have any friends…” I say quietly, a little embarrassed. “People here think of me differently because I’m only half Korean.”

“I don’t think any different of you, Hansol!” He says lightly, while giving me a smile that leaves me a little breathless.

Wow. I've only seen a few things in my short life that can honeslty be described as beautiful and this is definitely one of them.

“Stop staring at me like that.” He says, a little embarrassed.

Was I staring?

“Come on, show me where your seat is so I can sit beside you! You know, since we're best friends from now on, right?” Seungkwan looks towards me expectantly awaiting for my reply.

I hesitate for a split second, before deciding. “Yeah. We can be best friends” I say while starting to walk forward and leading him to my desk.

‘I guess this is a start.’ I think positively to myself.

●●

“It’s the one person in the world who knows you better than anyone else.”

●●

High School: 10th Grade

It’s a Friday night and Seungkwan and I are fighting over a dumb online quiz.

“Come on Seungkwan! You don't seriously think that’s the answer?!” I try to trick him into getting the question wrong, using reverse psychology.

“Don’t pull that crap on me Hansol, I’m not falling for your tricks, I know you better then you think.” He says calmly while rolling his eyes; signature smile slowly appearing on his face. Even through out the years I've known him he's never lost that smile.

I let out huff, as if to say, ‘yeah right’ and let a smile of my own begin to form.

“Sure you do.” I mumble out sarcastically.

“You where born February 18, 1998, about a month after me. You don’t like when people call you Vernon because it’s your American name and not your Korean one. Your blood type is A+. You’re 176 centimeters tall, and your favorite food is chocolate.” He looks towards me expectedly.

I end up snorting at his lame reply and he scowls at me. “What?!” He asks defensively.

“Anyone can tell you that kind of information, like I mean, come on.” I say while looking back towards the laptop sitting in between us and began to scroll down the page mindlessly.

He scoffs at me and begins to talk. “You like the american actors, Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt, but your favorite is Leonardo diCaprio because you think you look like him, and one day, I think you said something about ‘feeling sorry for him because he hasn’t won an Oscar yet’, or something.” He mumbles out the last part.

My head shoots up at his accuracy and I’m just a little surprised he remembers that.

“You’re a huge Harry Potter nerd, not from the books, but originally from the films, and you want to get the ‘Deathly Hallows’ tattooed one day, but we both know that’s probably never gonna happen because both of your parents are extremely conservative.” I stay staring at him in aw. “Also, your parents are your biggest role models along with J. Cole, whoever that is.”

“He’s a rapp-” I try to interrupt.

“Oh I’m not done.” He says shaking his head. “You admire David Bowie as a person and not just for his musical talents. You get scared easily, that’s why you don’t use alarm clocks and you avoid watching anything remotely in the horror/suspense genre.”

How can he remember all of this about me? Most of what he’s saying are things I’ve just said in passing or while having mindless conversations with him…

“Your favorite month is December, not just for one reason, but for many. Because it reminds you of christmas, you like how the trees loose their leaves, for some reason, and you get to drink hot chocolate more often. You enjoy cold weather the most, even though your favorite seasons are summer and fall. ”

He looks up at nothing and then back towards me, looking as if he just remembered something.

“You actually love to eat, like a lot , especially chocolate cakes, any type of cheesecake, and hamburgers. You think of it more as a hobby , considering you never gain any of the weight from it, because you have a high metabolism-”

I shake myself out of the astonishment I was in, “Okay, okay, okay! I get it you really do know me!”  and to raise my hands up to make Seungkwan stop.

“Oh, are you sure? I can tell you a lot more.” He asks, challengingly.

“No, I believe you.” I say in between laughs.

I believe Seungkwan because, I realized, I could have probably named just as much, or even more, things about the Jeju boy, myself.

●●

“It’s someone who makes you a better person.”

I pause.

“Actually they don’t make you a better person, you do that yourself , because they inspire you.” I watch as she gives me a gummy smile and giggles when I tap her nose.

●●

High School: 12th Grade

We’re in the second mont